What is Intermittent Dopamine Fasting
We’ve all heard of intermittent fasting and the amazing benefits it provides for the body like autophagy, weight loss, increased insulin sensitivity etc.
I have noticed it also improves my mood and productivity, but just eliminating food is not enough.
It takes Intermittent Dopamine Fasting that eliminates all dopamine inducing activities.
What are those? All the fun stuff I’m afraid.
Dopamine inducing activities besides eating food include
- Alcohol.
- Pornography.
- Social media.
- Watching TV.
- Watching videos.
- Reading blogs for entertainment and self-improvement (Only reading for work is allowed).
- Listening to podcasts or audiobooks.
- Drinking coffee – I must include this because everyone is using it as an escape when doing fasting, substituting food for coffee.
In other words: Any activity where you are absorbing information while sitting on your ass being a spectator.
Now all you are left with are the hardcore activities we all know and love:
- Working out.
- Playing sports.
- Hiking.
- Studying material.
- Working on your projects.
- Learning new skills.
- Meditating.
- Journaling.
- Winning your days.
Anything that requires you to spend energy and effort is more than welcome.
Also all procrastination activities are forbidden, there is nothing left to do except productive things. That is why it works so quickly, you will notice improvements in your mood, productivity and happiness after the first day.
This might sound too boring or too hardcore when you look at the list but you must hear the benefits before deciding if you want to try it. And it’s the only way to completely eliminate procrastination.
Benefits of dopamine fasting
Face your demons and develop true character
No more hiding and substituting one compulsion with another. Too often when we try to eliminate one vice we end up substituting it with another.
People who quit smoking start overeating or people who start intermittent fasting start binge watching TV shows.
All they are doing is replacing one compulsion with another, this is not how you develop character. The way to develop character is to give them all up at once (for a short period of time).
It sounds super hard and your mind will freak out the first few hours, but if you manage to hold on you will come out on the other end super human. Of course this is not sustainable for the long term which is why it’s intermittent.
From reactive to proactive
I must admit the first day you won’t know what to do with yourself so keep a packed schedule. If you want to rest, just lay on your bed or take a walk. After the first day your focus will go through the roof.
There is nothing left for your mind to focus on when you eliminate all the crappy stuff.
You will stop being reactive because you will eliminate reactive activities.
Then when you sit to do your work or study your mind will completely be into it and you will achieve flow much much easier.
Let you subconscious, your greatest asset, work for you
Your subconscious works when your conscious brain has downtime. This happens naturally when talking walks, driving etc.
It is so common to use this time to listen to podcasts or audiobooks. Don’t do it. You are still engaging the conscious mind so that your subconscious can’t activate.
The power of the subconscious is much greater than any book you can read and the way to activate it is simple.
Spend time consciously working on a problem or task and then take a real break, walk, run, shower, work out, take a nap, without any inputs and let your mind do its thing. It’s supposed to be activated, it’s our greatest asset so it happens automatically.
How to do Dopamine Fasting
I suggest limiting the dopamine activities to 1 continuous hour per day.
You can keep your eating window to 8 hours or less, but limit the use of all other dopamine activities to one continuous hour.
By continuous hour I mean you do it from 6pm to 7pm, don’t spread that hour to 10 sessions of 6 minutes.
I am personally doing 30 mins per day tops for one month. This is the month I am launching LifeHQ so I need all the productivity boost I can get. This coupled with the complete productivity system at LifeHQ is ma
I’ve already been using the productivity system at LifeHQ but introducing Dopamine Fasting has boosted my energy levels and cleared my mind.
The productivity system is the mechanism but Dopamine fasting is the batteries.
Dopamine is involved in ALL learning activities, especially working out, playing sports, and *gasp* learning new skills. Please do some reading on the topic.
Well sure, but you get my point right. The levels are not even close.